Partisan? Moi?

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At the end of The Sting, ace con-man Harry Gondorff is explaining how times have changed in Chicago, and not for the better. "Chicago was a rigged town then," he tells protege Johnny Hooker. "And it really stunk, kid. There's no point in being a grifter if it's the same as being a citizen."

And then we have Michelle Rhee.

She's on a book tour now, shining up her own martyrdom and driving nails through her own palms, and claiming (as always) that it is her devotion to "the kids" that has made her rich. Beset by lazy, uncooperative public-school teachers, she stands alone, a "radical," interested only in bringing reform to America's classrooms. And, of course, doing it all in a "bipartisan" way.

"It's interesting to me the fact that a lot of people are trying to choose one or two of the people who support us and cast us as a conservative, right-wing organization," Rhee, a Democrat, said at POLITICO's Breakfast Club in Washington. She said that while she lists prominent Republicans such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval as supporters of her education advocacy group StudentsFirst, there are big-name Democrats who support her endeavors, too. "Guess what, so does [Chicago Mayor] Rahm Emanuel, [Los Angeles Mayor] Antonio Villaraigosa ... as well as other prominent Democrats," she said. "This is actually the cool thing about what we're doing - this is bipartisan."

The $500,000 donation went to Citizens Protecting Michigan's Constitution, which is supported by business and community organizations, as well as school groups including the Michigan Association of School Boards and the Michigan Association of School Administrators. Proposal 2 is supported by a coalition of unions and Democrats that collected more than $8 million, according to a July campaign finance report. And updated report is due this week.

Michelle Rhee doesn't like unions. Period. This is because the various corporate interests that have bankrolled her entire public career actively hate unions. So she and her organization laundered half-a-million bucks into an election to defeat a law aimed at reversing the extremist anti-union agenda of a truly radical governor and state legislature. Suddenly, Rhee's concern for "the kids" required her to line up against the legitimate economic interests of every worker in Michigan, schoolteacher or not. That is not a very bipartisan thing to do.

But the kitty really comes screeching out of the burlap later on in her visit with Tiger Beat On The Potomac.

Rhee also said that teachers and parents should stop rewarding students for mediocrity. "I think that we are doing the wrong thing in our society when we are congratulating mediocrity and participation," she said. She said her own two daughters, ages 10 and 14, play soccer and have a collection of "trophies, medals, ribbons and plaques of all kinds." "They suck at soccer," she deadpanned. "[But] if you came from another country or another planet, and you walked into my house, you would think, 'Michelle Rhee is raising the next [retired soccer superstar] Mia Hamm.'" She continued: "I try to tell my kids, 'You're not so good at soccer. If you want to become good, you've got to work hard,'" she said. "When we hand that plaque to every single kid just for participating on the team, I think we are creating a generation of Americans who don't understand that greatness is possible, but you have to work for it. I feel like that is the American spirit."

First of all, way to play your own kids for a cheap punchline in a room full of strangers. You stay classy, Michelle. Second, Jesus H. Christ on the bench at Old Trafford, do we really have to listen to more guff about participation trophies and their hollowing out of the American character again? This is wingnut talk-radio crapola of the first order. What Rhee's talking about has been happening on the country's rec league playing fields for over 20 years now. Does that generation seem mediocre to you? The generation that got sent off to war in Iraq and Afghanistan? And, not for nothing, but American soccer -- particularly women's soccer -- has improved by several orders of magnitude. The fact is that Michelle Rhee doesn't like American parents -- especially the ones who can't soak billionnaires into bankrolling their personal ego trips -- any more than she likes teachers, or their unions. She standing up for "the kids" even against those people who are working two jobs trying to raise them. If there's a bigger and more arrogant faker on the public scene, the floor's open for nominations.